Koivu, who drew the ire of the Montreal fans for not speaking
French on Wednesday, opened the scoring less than nine minutes
into the game.

With a penalty waiting to be called on the Flyers, netminder
Cristobal Huet raced to the bench to allow Koivu to join the
play as the extra attacker. Defenseman Roman Hamrlik dropped
the puck to the rushing Finn, who wristed a shot between
goaltender Martin Biron's pads for his fourth goal of the
season.

"They have some skill, they have some size, but tonight, we had
some jump," Koivu said. "We played our style, we didn't turn
the puck over at all and we were able to create some offense
when we got the puck deep in their zone. It was a good game for
us."

Kovalev's power-play goal broke open the game in the second
period.

With the contest tied at 1-1 with 7:28 remaining in the session,
Kovalev worked his way along the boards in offensive zone
before cutting back to the top of the left faceoff circle and
wristing a shot that beat Biron just under the crossbar.

The Canadiens, who have scored on 16-of-42 power plays in their
last seven games, now have a league-best 21 goals with the man
advantage.

Tom Kostopoulos added a shorthanded tally just over four minutes
later to increase the advantage to 3-1 for Montreal, which has
won five of its last six games.

Kostopoulos stripped the puck from Mike Richards at his own blue
line and moved down the left wing with defenseman Andrei Markov
trailing. After a brief exchange between the two, Kostopoulos
one-timed the return pass past Biron at 11:38.

A great individual play by Koivu gave the Canadiens their fourth
goal.

Koivu stripped Flyers captain Jason Smith of the puck and raced
up the wing before feeding Guillaume Latendresse at the goal
mouth for an easy tap-in at 8:21 of the third.

"The way we played with the lead in the third period is the way
we have to do it," Koivu said. "Throughout the season, for the
most part, we've played well, but last game (against Atlanta)
was a different mind set. We had lost focus.

"It was real important for us to come out strong and play a good
game, and I think we played all three periods real well."

Christopher Higgins scored on a 5-on-3 power play, gathering a
rebound in front of the net and burying it with just over three
minutes remaining in the period.

Richards scored his team-leading seventh goal to level the game
at 1-1 with 3:10 remaining in the first period.

Daniel Briere accepted a feed from defenseman Kimmo Timonen and
weaved his way through the offensive zone before backhanding a
pass to Richards, whose shot caromed off Markov's skate and into
the net for a power-play goal.

"We knew there was going to be energy in the building, it's one
of the best places to play in," Richards said. "There was
energy out there until the end of the game, and we didn't do
enough to take them out of it.

"We've been giving up shots, a lot every night, and Montreal's a
good team, they capitalized on their opportunities and we gave
them too many solid opportunities and second chances. The best
thing is, we're turning around and doing it again (in Washington
on Friday). We obviously didn't play our best game tonight, so
we hope to turn it around with a better one."

Montreal fans booed Briere every time he touched the puck. The
5-9, 177-pound French-Canadian spurned an offer from the
Canadiens before signing an eight-year, $52 million deal with
the Flyers on July 1.

"It wasn't hard, it was a lot of fun," Briere said of his
reception. "Especially early on, it was motivational, it was a
great atmosphere to play in. Obviously, I'm disappointed with
the result - we didn't get to show the real Flyers."

Scottie Upshall, playing his first game since suffering a broken
wrist in the preseason, scored with 28 seconds remaining in the
final period.

"We didn't do a very good job of checking them. We let their
forwards come up the ice too fast," Philadelphia coach John
Stevens said. "Montreal moves the puck real well and, right
now, they're built like Carolina - with speed and they move the
puck over."

Biron made 36 saves for Philadelphia, while Huet stopped 17
shots for Montreal.

Philadelphia defenseman Randy Jones served the first contest of
his two-game suspension, which was handed down Monday for his
hit on Boston's Patrice Bergeron in the Flyers' 2-1 victory on
Saturday.